Australian DJ sacked for query over PM’s ‘gay boyfriend’

Julia Gillard and &apos;First Bloke&apos; Tim Mathieson have been together for seven years

SAM MOOY

Anne Barrowclough

Friday June 14 2013, 4.20am, The Times

An Australian DJ has been sacked after asking the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, live on air whether her hairdresser boyfriend was gay.

Amid a week in which sexism has dominated Australia’s headlines – both in politics and elsewhere – the extraordinary exchange drew widespread opprobrium after Howard Sattler questioned Ms Gillard over her relationship on Perth’s 6PR radio station.

After asking the country’s first female Prime Minister why she and Tim Mathieson, her partner of seven years, had not married, Mr Sattler went on to suggest that the divorced father of three must be gay because he was a hairdresser.

“Tim’s gay ... you hear it, he must be gay, he’s a hairdresser,” he said to the shocked Prime Minister.